1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to web browsers. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for providing an application canvas framework which facilitates the manipulation of text and graphics within a web browser.
2. Related Art
With the advent of new web technologies, many organizations are opting to develop web-based applications in lieu of their desktop counterparts. Web-based applications enjoy the benefit of cross-platform functionality. Additionally, web-based applications can be accessed from almost any computing device that has access to the Internet, rather than being tied to a specific machine.
While web-based applications have many advantages over desktop applications, they also have significant drawbacks. Traditionally, web-based applications offer only a fraction of the functionality that is offered by desktop applications. Furthermore, many of the advanced features offered by web-based applications require special browser plug-ins that are specific to a particular Operating System (OS) or browser. Moreover, security features of most browsers complicate interactions between web-based applications and the host OS, such as file system operations.
Hence, what is needed is a method and an apparatus for deploying web-based applications without the problems listed above.